Chapter Text
Arnold Shortman yawned as he awoke in bed in his room at the Sunset Arms. Arnold blinked as he sat up in bed, and pulled back the bed cover. Arnold had blonde hair that was parted in the middle by his small blue hat, an American football shaped head, oval eyes, a sizeable round nose, and small round ears. Arnold was currently wearing his blue pyjama top and matching blue pyjama pants. Arnold climbed out of bed, he looked upward briefly at the skylight in his bedroom. It was cloudy outside but there was no sign of rain at the moment. Arnold’s attention returned to the inside of his room, as he walked over to his slippers which he slid his feet into. Arnold walked over towards his door, he opened it, and walked down the attic stairs into the hallway. As soon as Arnold emerged into the hallway, he saw Grandpa Phil coming up the stairs. Grandpa also noticed Arnold, he immediately approached him. Phil was bald, with bushy grey eyebrows, oval eyes, a long nose, surprisingly large ears, and a protruding chin. Phil wore a green cardigan with a diamond pattern on it, a grey vest, brown pants with a dark brown and a brass buckle, light brown loafers, and white socks.
“Ah, there you are, Shortman! Top of the morning to you!” Grandpa Phil said in an eccentric manner.
“Morning, grandpa. Boy, it sure was hot last night.” Arnold greeted his grandfather.
“Oh, yeah. You’d better make sure you take a shower. You don’t want to stink like Smelly Craig!” Grandpa Phil said as if that was somebody that Arnold should already be aware of. Arnold stared at Grandpa for a moment, he couldn’t recall anyone with a name like that, except for maybe Stinky, which wasn’t even close to what Phil said.
“I guess so. Anyway, I gotta go take a shower. See you later.” Arnold replied as he wondered if Grandpa misremembered or misspoke.
“See you later, Shortman.” Grandpa Phil said as he walked off down the hallway. Arnold tried to put the odd comment by his grandfather out of his mind as he walked towards the door of the bathroom.
Some considerable time later, Arnold stepped out of the front door of the boarding house. Arnold was now wearing his dark green jacket with long sleeves, a green sweatshirt, a red flannel shirt with yellow crossed lines on it, blue pants, and red and white sneakers. Arnold immediately noticed that his best friend, Gerald Johanssen was waiting for him on the steps outside of the boarding house. Gerald had tall curly dark hair, an oval shaped head, dark skin, oval eyes, a sizeable oval nose, and small round ears. Gerald was dressed in a dark red hoodie top with a large white 33 on the front, blue pants, and red and white sneakers. Gerald smiled as he approached Arnold, both boys extended their arms and hands with their fingers closed. Arnold and Gerald bumped fists while they both wiggled their thumbs on their hands, which was their version of a secret handshake.
“About time you got here, Arnold. I was about to apply for a building permit to put up a tent.” Gerald joked as he grinned at Arnold while they stood on the stoop of the boarding house.
“I guess we should probably get going, huh?” Arnold said as he and Gerald walked down the steps at the front of the boarding house. Arnold and Gerald began walking down the street in the direction of the nearest bus stop. Arnold suddenly remembered that odd comment Grandpa Phil had made about somebody called Smelly Craig. Arnold decided to ask Gerald about this, since he was the Keeper of the Tales at P.S. 118.
“Gerald, do you know anything about Smelly Craig?” Arnold asked Gerald, which seemed to surprise him.
“Smelly Craig? Well, yeah. But what does THAT have to do with anything?!” Gerald asked incredulously as he and Arnold walked down the street towards the bus stop.
“My grandpa mentioned it this morning. When I was about to go take a shower.” Arnold replied without actually repeating what Grandpa Phil said.
“Oh. Well, according to what I heard, there was a kid named Smelly Craig at P.S. 118 who smelled so bad, that all of the kids and teachers made fun of him. Smelly Craig couldn’t stop stinking, no matter what he tried, so one day he fled into the school’s steam tunnel, and was never seen again.” Gerald explained, at least as much as he knew about Smelly Craig anyway.
“That’s horrible. What an awful fate to happen to a kid at our school!” Arnold replied as he and Gerald walked towards the bus stop.
“I know, Arnold. It’s not exactly a crowd pleasing story.” Gerald responded as he walked along the street with Arnold. He and Gerald soon arrived at the bus stop where they waited for the city bus that would take them to P.S. 118. It wasn’t long before the silver city bus pulled up to the curb at the bus stop. Arnold and Gerald got onto the bus, showing the driver their bus passes. The two boys turned to their left, and they walked up the aisle of the bus as they noticed that several kids from P.S. 118 were already on the bus. This included Helga Pataki and Phoebe Heyerdahl, who were both sitting on a bench seat about half way down the bus. Arnold and Gerald sat down on a bench seat opposite to Helga and Phoebe.
“How’s it going, Football Head?!” Helga asked with a smirk as the bus pulled off from the curb and resumed its journey to P.S. 118. Helga had straight blonde hair tied up in two large pigtails with a large pink bow in it, a thick black unibrow, round eyes, a round nose, and small round ears. Helga was dressed in a white shirt, a pink dress that had shoulder straps as well as a dark pink stripe and red stripe on the bottom, and red and white sneakers on her feet.
“Morning, Helga. You’re looking lovely today.” Arnold smiled, he knew that Helga liked him, and he’d figured that was the case since the FTI incident. Arnold took her use of the term “football head” as an affectionate callback to a time when Helga had been afraid to admit her feelings for him. The girl swooned over her boyfriend’s comment.
“Well, well, if it isn’t my brave Samurai.” Phoebe smiled at Gerald from across the aisle of the bus. Phoebe had straight dark hair pulled upwards in a topknot by a light blue hairband, large thick light blue oval eyeglasses covering her eyes, a small round nose, and small round ears. Phoebe wore a white shirt with a light blue collar, a dark blue jacket with long sleeves, a light blue skirt, and dark blue and white sneakers on her feet.
“Hey, babe.” Gerald grinned at Phoebe from the bench seat on the other side of the bus.
“Flatterer. But I’m not going to lie, I still love it.” Helga grinned, after she managed to compose herself. Helga wondered what Arnold had been up to since they’d last spoken so she decided to ask him.
“So, what have you been up to, hair boy?” Helga asked, using another one of her nicknames for Arnold.
“Oh, nothing much. Just hanging out with Gerald and the guys.” Arnold said as the bus wound its way through the city streets of Hillwood towards P.S. 118. Arnold didn’t want to bring up Smelly Craig right now, since Helga would probably scoff at the idea anyway, plus he wasn’t really sure what he thought about it himself yet.
“So, looking forward to another exciting day at P.S. 118?” Phoebe asked Gerald with a hint of sarcasm that wasn’t lost on him.
“Only if you’re there, babe.” Gerald grinned as he replied to what Phoebe said. Meanwhile, Rhonda Wellington Lloyd was gossiping with her best friend Nadine Robinson a few bench seats back from where Arnold, Gerald, Helga, and Phoebe were sitting.
“It looks as if Helga and Arnold are sitting opposite each other again. I wonder what he said to Helga that made her react like that?” Rhonda pondered as she sat on a bench seat beside her best friend. Rhonda had dark straight hair that fell just above her shoulders, large oval eyes, a small round nose, and small round ears. Rhonda wore a small golden necklace around her neck, a short dark red jacket with long sleeves, a short dark blue dress, black pants, and low heeled red shoes on her feet.
“I don’t know. It must have been something pretty important.” Nadine shrugged as she looked across the bus towards where Arnold and Helga were sitting. Nadine had blonde braided hair that stuck out like spider legs with light blue hair clips, tanned skin, small round eyes, a round nose, and round ears. Nadine was dressed in an aquamarine t-shirt with light blue highlights around the sleeves and the bottom, a short plain black skirt, and grey low heeled boots on her feet.
“Probably something about how pretty she looks or how sweet she is, knowing Arnold.” Rhonda replied as she glanced down at her overpriced smartphone for a moment before looking up once again at Nadine and the other kids on the bus.
“You are SURE that they’re officially together, Rhonda?” Nadine asked as she wondered if she’d left enough food for her pet cockroaches and various other bugs at home as she listened to Rhonda gossiping about Arnold and Helga.
“Oh come on, Nadine! It’s practically an open secret at this point. After all, look at Gerald and Phoebe. Those two are a known item!” Rhonda replied as if it was somehow any of her business in the first place. Rhonda had two great interests in life, other than spending money, that is. Those being fashion and gossip, which apparently required the rich girl to speculate about the nature of the other students’ relationships. Meanwhile, Arnold and Helga were still chatting with each other as the city bus made its way towards P.S. 118.
“Hey, did you see Wartz’s reaction to that graffiti someone left the other day in the boys toilets? If he got any redder, I think steam would have been shooting out of his ears!” Helga chuckled as she recalled that somebody, she suspected several other kids, including Curly, left an obscene limerick about Principal Wartz on the side of one of the toilet cubicles.
“Actually, I didn’t see it, Helga. I heard about it from Stinky, Sid, and Gerald.” Arnold explained, he wasn’t overly fond of Principal Wartz, who could be petty, officious, and more than a little rigid in how he ran the school. But then again, Arnold didn’t really approve of writing obscene poems on the side of the toilet cubicle either.
“Awww, man. I wish I could have seen the look on his face when somebody told him about it.” Helga chuckled as she leaned back on the bench seat while the city bus winded its way through the streets of Hillwood. It wasn’t all that long before the city bus arrived outside of P.S. 118. The silver bus pulled up to the curb, the front doors slid open, and the kids began to file off the bus onto the pavement outside of the school. Arnold, Helga, Gerald, and Phoebe got off the bus along with the rest of the kids from P.S. 118. Most of the kids, including the aforementioned four went right up the steps to the front entrance, then inside the school.